Rockford Fosgate T15kW

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE car audio. I can't see shelling out $15K - $20K of my hard earned on one amp...unless I won the lottery or something The Flakman

I feel strange. I have deja vu and amnesia at the same time.

John | Manteca, CA

lol

It CAN'T happen... Unless it can pull magic power out of it's (either claimed, or apparently, I'll let the reader decide...) gold-plated ass, and make energy out of thin air, due to some bending of ALL LAWS OF PHYSICS, it can't do it. I was mentioning this to a friend of mine (who, BTW works for a car stereo store that sells RF, and holds a degree in electrical engineering) and he said it's a peak rating... Does that sound a little bit like Audiobahn? I smell a rat. Something vaguely reminiscent of "inflated numbers", only this time, I'd venture GROSSLY inflated numbers... 300A*14.4v=4320 watts in 15000 watts out/4320 watts in = 347% efficiency! Looks to me like what they are doing is driving one channel to peak, and then multiplying by the number of channels... 4340*.86=3750*4=15000 Personally, it smells to me like a gimmick, and just another reason for me to dislike and distrust RF.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I think this amp is RF's way of trying to appeal to the car audio enthusiasts and not just to the teenagers playing around in Best Buy. I honestly dont doubt that the Hybrid Technology has an improved efficiency, but 347%?!?! Give me a break...Im with Flak, unless I win the lottery, that things never touching ground in my car... P.S. Im sure most of you have allready seen THIS VIDEO'89 Mercedes-Benz 300E

Pioneer DEH-5900UB

(2)RE Audio SX 10"s

(1)US Amps MD3D

3ft^3 @ 37Hz

Blowing up in a car accident doesnt worry me, as long as I'm putting out some major dB's when I die...

The thing is it dosent use 12 volt inside the amp heam.....From the specs I read...and I will have to find them somewhere, it uses caps and step chargers just like the old Drag King and queen amps to make the amp internally a 70 volt system.2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR

2007 USACI World Champion

2007 World Record

2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

jeffchilcott wrote: The thing is it dosent use 12 volt inside the amp heam.....From the specs I read...and I will have to find them somewhere, it uses caps and step chargers just like the old Drag King and queen amps to make the amp internally a 70 volt system.

It still has to have the input power... Even if converted to 70 volts, it still can't make power (which is voltage times current, right?) from nothing... The power supply, no matter WHAT the voltage is specified at can only convert energy, not create it. The amount of power OUT can never be more than the amount of power IN, and it can't even be equal, due to losses... A 350% GAIN is not possible. At all. Ever. I think Einstein and Hawking would be interested in their theories... Imaging all of a sudden finding out that you are wrong. And that after being called the smartest men who ever lived. ALL amplifiers are required to step the voltage up, otherwise it can't ever produce more than 51 watts (peak) at 4 ohms, and that's with the engine running. That's the whole purpose of the power supply end of the amplifier - it's a DC-DC switching device that steps from 12 volts DC to ±DC voltage rails.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

That one link says it stores energy in a capacitor bank. The don't give a number, but they say its "well into six figures of joules." Lets guess this at 500,000 joules, which would require 204 F of capacitance at 70v. I am just guessing at this of course since they don't specify the exact number of joules or the working voltage.(I wonder why?) 500,000 joules divided by 15kw gives you only 33 seconds of power before the caps are dead and then what? You have to wait for the caps to recharge? I understand the concept of the whole thing, I just don't see it being very practical.

Here's another quote from the CA&E article: "The question has been asked, “What about a sine wave, like for an SPL competitor?” The T15kW has plenty of energy to get through a three-second sine wave burst. However a five-minute “death match” competition is not the T15kW’s forte. Who wants to torture their investment like that anyhow?" It seems to be built for burps and not much else.

Torture? Personally I call it a 'Quality Test' so to speak.